The Tarot The Colors

The Tarot

The Colors

The colors of a Tarot Deck

y carefully examining a deck of Tarot cards, we find 6 main colors : Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Black and Flesh tint.

At the beginning of the Christian era, the basic colors were red, white and black. Red evoked the imperial color of the Roman emperors. It was the symbol of absolute power over matter. It would not be until the 12th century that we would see the emergence of a new color: blue. It was the cult of Marial who gave it its nobility. It will become the color of spirituality, of inner purity and also, the color of the kings of France.

In the Tarot, blue will oppose the color red to create a symbolic duality :

• Red : color of the material plane, of desire, or temporal power.

• Blue : color of the spiritual plane, of aspiration, of timeless power.

With the advent of these two colors, White loses its definition of purity. It does remain the virginal color, but for the medieval thinkers, it is yellow, the color of light, which includes all the colors of the rainbow, and which will be the color of the Divine. White disappears in favor or yellow, which becomes the color of sanctity.

• Yellow: color of the divine plane, of universal wisdom, the power of absolute Sophia.

The Tarot tells of the battle between the Blue and the Red, supervised by the Yellow.

Let us analyze the Flesh color. It should be emphasized that it is the most important color of the Tarot, because it represents human consciousness! It is the one that must reach a moral perfection allowing it to become divine. It is going to find itself pulled between the Blue of spirituality and the Red of materiality. But one way or the other, Blue and Red will be energies that will help it to grow.

• Skin color : color of the human plane, of consciousness, of the power of temporality and spirituality.

There is another color: Green. One need not be clairvoyant to know that it is the color of leaves, of nature, hence of life. It symbolizes the energy that animates everything that has the possibility of becoming alive, whatever the plane considered.

• Green = color of vitality, directing principle, orienting and revealing life.

There is one last color, Black, which originally opposed White. It aspires to light, and is also the one who reveals light. It becomes the color of revelation of that which is essential, i.e., the essence of heaven : the soul. It will be the color of transmutation. It requires one to forget what is useless, to reach what is important. It is by accepting death that we come to this world; it will be by dying that we access THE WORLD.

• Black = color of regeneration, principle of transformation, predisposing factor of decanting, and the crystallization of all that is essential. It symbolizes forces of nature and the metamorphosis of human consciousness into divine consciousness.

A Symbolic Approach to the Tarot

To discover the symbolism of an arcane in the Tarot and help the student to develop a visual memory of tarological knowledge, a certain number of principles must be applied. As any language has syntax, the elementary rules must be known for the reading of a symbol.

There was time when a headdress personalized the social class to which an individual belonged to, or symbolized the profession he had. The hat, in the Tarot decks, by its shape and color, represents the cerebral activity, or the type of intelligence that the character of the arcana holds.

To Decode an Image

The rules are very simple and all rely on the following principle: the evidence must direct the arcane. Let us analyze the card :

The Sky

The Past and the Feminine

The Future and the Masculine

Earth

The Chariot

The Devil

The Sun

Observe the horses, the little devils and the Children, and note that the elements on the left have a feminine appearance, while the elements on the right have a masculine appearance.

Let us now look at the characters. Some are standing and others sitting. Standing implies a movement, so the card is active. If the character is sitting, it means that he is at rest, and that the action is on the inner plane, hence the card is passive. In the first arcane, the character is standing, indicating that the Tarot physically starts with a movement, while the second card, confidently awaits the generated consequences.

The Magician

The High Priestess

The body is like a vehicle : to direct it,
There must be a thought,
Which the head symbolizes.

• If the face is looking to the right side of the card, it means that the thought is being projected to the future. The spirit is active, to conceive or analyze what is starting.

• If the character is looking to the left of the card, giving the impression that he is looking at the road traveled, he is meditating on his past. He is taking stock.

• If the character is looking forward, it means that the functions of analysis and synthesis are in perfect equilibrium with the character.

The hat symbolizes the type of intellect.

There was a time when a headdress personalized the social class to which an individual belonged, or symbolized the profession he had. The hat in the Tarot decks by its shape and color, represents the cerebral activity or the type of intelligence that the character in the arcane holds. Until today, we distinguish a prominent chef to his chef’s hat. In the Middle Ages, the hat personalized the social status of an individual. In the Tarot, the hat symbolizes the type of intellect or the style of thought used by a character and the colors indicated at which level the analysis or synthesis is taking place.

.There was time when a headdress personalized the social class to which an individual belonged to, or symbolized the profession he had. The hat, in the Tarot decks, by its shape and color, represents the cerebral activity, or the type of intelligence that the character of the arcana holds.

If a character isn’t wearing a hat, the hair, whether blue or yellow, describes their receptive capacities. Turned to the left of the card, he has a meditative attitude, at one with what he is receiving, while to the right, he is conscious of it. The hair becomes an antenna catching the cosmic fluids: intelligence is exclusively receptive or intuitive.

Indeed, there are other data allowing one to decode the Tarot, such as a beard, which symbolizes strength and creative power (God is always represented with a beard), but an exhaustive study of this data, would drown the initial quest of allowing the student to discover the visual Tarot in its simple symbolism. We cannot philosophize as long as we are not able to expose a coherent idea.